The public procurement of information systems: dialectics in requirements specification




Carl Erik Moe, Mike Newman, Maung Kyaw Sein

PublisherPALGRAVE MACMILLAN LTD

2017

European Journal of Information Systems

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

EUR J INFORM SYST

26

2

143

163

21

0960-085X

1476-9344

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1057/s41303-017-0035-4

https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/20670155



When acquiring information systems, public entities face a dilemma. On the one hand, they want to procure the system that best suits their needs, which often requires lengthy dialogues with vendors. At the same time, they are restricted by government regulations that mandate limited dialogue in the interests of transparency and equal opportunities for all vendors. To examine how public entities deal with this, we followed three procurement projects in Norway. We show that this dilemmamanifests itself as a dialectic between the thesis of getting the systemrequirements right and the antithesis of strictly adhering to regulations. Public entities search for a resolution of this dialectic through two syntheses: selecting an appropriate tendering procedure, and learning how to specify requirements through networks of peer public entities. Our findings reveal that the syntheses are possible because the dialectic is actually complimentary, both the thesis and the antithesis are needed to create the joint outcome that satisfies both. The resolution of the dialectic unfolds differently over time. Our study contributes to the relatively neglected stream of IS research on dialectics that explicitly searches for a synthesis while revealing the complementarity of the dialectic. We show how time plays a nuanced role in the resolution of the dialectic situation.

Last updated on 2024-26-11 at 18:52